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| Sunday, 7 August 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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'No rail track repairs, over 30,000 lives in danger' Reference to our above news item last Sunday, General Manager Railway says: "Sri Lanka Railways was allocated Rs. 4.3 billion as Capital Expenditure for the current year 2005. "Out of which, you will note a sum of Rs. 1.756 b is allocated for the rehabilitation of track with new rails and sleepers. Therefore, what is indicated in the news item for rehabilitation of the three lines that is Bandarawela to Badulla, Kandy to Matale and Negombo to Puttalam as Rs. 4.8 b is totally misleading. The allocation of the Rs. 1.756 b as permanent way rehabilitation is not only for the above three lines but for the entire rail network in the country. There is no way where the allocated capital expenditure can be spent for recurrent items and if it has happened, the Chief Accounting Officer who is the Secretary to the Ministry of Transport should take action against the Railway Department. What has taken place is that the Treasury has recently transferred Rs. 900m from the recurrent budget to be paid to Ceylon Petroleum Corporation against the dues. Further, already the Treasury has taken action to pay around Rs. 250m from the Capital budget to State Timber Corporation for the dues up to 2004. State Timber Corporation insisted that they be paid all the dues up to 2004 as well as for the purchases made in 2005 and the cash flow required for payment of this money to State Timber Corporation as well as money required for all other expenses of the Sri Lanka Railways under both capital and recurrent have been sent to the Secretary/Treasury through Secretary/Ministry of Transport. The main reason for the dilapidated condition of the up country line and other mentioned lines are due to not supplying the indented sleepers by the State Timber Corporation. It has to be mentioned here that State Timber Corporation agreed to supply 150,000 sleepers by the end of 2005 and up to end of July 2005 they have just supplied only 37,000 sleepers. The shortage of sleepers and rails has been accumulating over the past 15-20 years and at the moment there is a shortage of 800,000 sleepers and about 100,000 rails for the entire network. Each sleeper will cost Rs. 5,000 and each rail will cost Rs. 100,000. Action has been taken in this year with the money allocated to call for tenders for the supply of rails, fastenings, steel sleepers and hardwood sleepers. Under these circumstances, a sum of Rs. 20b is required to bring the entire track network to a satisfactory condition. Editor's note: The GMR in his letter does not contradict our story. But he disagrees with the statement made in the body of our story by his former boss. Transport Secretary Dr. D.S. Jayaweera. Dr. Jayaweera stated in our last week lead story "I asked them to prepare a short Action Plan to renovate these three lines and approved Rs. 4.8 billion for capital expenses. They have used this money to settle Rs. 600 million Petroleum Corporation and Rs.800 million Timber Corporation bills. They are themselves to blame for the present state of the Railways. The Railway is not performing to its maximum. If they really want to renovate these lines, they could have used approved funds. But they use it to settle recurrent expenses. Therefore, I can not approve more than what they requested". Transport Secretary blames the Railway and GMR blames the Transport Secretary. But with this contradiction it is evidently clear the official tug- of- war in the state transport sector has crippled development. |
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